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SUMMIT SUMMARY: BEN LAWERS

Meall Garbh, An Stuc, Ben Lawers, across Glen Lyon from Creag Ard (Route 22)

Scotland’s nine highest mountains all lie in the Ben Nevis range, or else in the great high plateau of the Cairngorms. The 10th, somewhat to our surprise, is Perthshire’s Ben Lawers. There is, though, a difference. Ben Nevis and Ben Macdui have huge and celebrated crags to climb on. Ben Lawers is Scotland’s biggest mountain made of grass. Grass – but also wild flowers. In high slimy corries where the sheep can’t reach and minerals seep out of the mountain, little alpine blossoms make Ben Lawers into one of our largest nature reserves.

Across Loch Tay to the Lawers group

Lawers grass means you can go, in heather-free comfort, pretty well anywhere above the 800m contour. From Lochan nan Cat, any slope not altogether rocky tempts as a possible line onto the ridge. Grass is eaten by sheep, and shepherds ride quad bikes; so, on the north side, the unexplored valleys between the ridges have useful tracks, with high slopes above offering a dozen more ways to get lost on Lawers.